Uniform Laundry

UniFirst was one of the first uniform rental companies to re-engineer all of its operations to become a “greener” and more environmentally friendly company. We were also one of the first members of the EPA’s Green Lights® and Energy Star Buildings® programs, which combine business strategies with environmental protection and energy conservation at all corporate facilities. And every single UniFirst laundry production facility uses computerized processing equipment to maximize fuel and energy efficiencies, while minimizing waste.

Browse the UniFirst Uniform Rental Catalog

In 1997 UniFirst joined the Laundry Environment Stewardship Program (LaundryESP), an initiative whose members are uniform cleaning companies with one main focus: to protect the environment. As a result of re-engineering all our operations to become “greener,” our uniform laundry service operations have achieved and continue to maintain large reductions in water and energy usage. As professional “industrial launderers” (uniform cleaners) UniFirst has contributed to our industry’s environmental sustainability.

1. Water use: 12.5% reduction
2. Energy use: 11.8% reduction
3. Pollutants discharged: 40% reduction
4. Peroxide bleaches: 100% increase in usage for wash formulas, resulting in less use of chlorine bleaches
5. Enzyme based detergents: 57% increase

The UniFirst uniform laundry process.

UniFirst uses a unique uniform laundry service process. Once clothing or other textile products enter one of our laundry processing facilities:

• every item is carefully sorted and placed into specifically designed slings that are tagged by garment type and soil level
• the items in each sling are then weighed and sent to designated washers that have been pre-programmed based on the specifics of the load to ensure that the exact amounts of cleaning agents, water, and temperatures are used to prevent unnecessary waste
• computerized wash formulas determine the correct water levels and temperatures, what detergents and additives are needed, the length of the wash cycle and any other additional information that the specific clothing or soil type might require
• once the wash cycle is complete, state of the art computer controls automatically tip and empty washers onto conveyers which transfer the laundry to pre-programmed dryers
• with a system like this there is little likelihood for human error or wasted resources

This uniform cleaning is the standard that we have set for our uniform laundry services. We take extraordinary care throughout our uniform cleaning service and especially with any by-products produced by our laundry operation facilities. Our ongoing investments in water and air treatment technologies help ensure that everything we return to the environment is clean, safe and non-polluting.

Learn more about uniform laundry programs from UniFirst